Mechanical characteristics of Ni50Co50/Ni substrate during indentation by molecular dynamics

Coating an alloys film onto a metallic surface could dramatically improve the surface quality. This report studies the microstructure and intermixing phenomena of Ni50Co50 film deposited on Ni(001) substrate with flat, asperity and trench Ni surfaces by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The effects of the film thickness and loading velocity on the mechanical properties and deformation behaviours of the sample are also surveyed by indentation. The results represent that the intermixing and lattice structure of the film is enhanced after annealing. Moreover, the sample hardness is improved as the deposited Ni50Co50 film when the film thickness rising from 18 to 38 angstrom. In contrast, the structure transformation rate and dislocations density of the sample decrease when the Ni50Co50 film becomes thicker. Interestingly, the plastic deformation rate and dislocation density of the sample at the trench surface are higher than the flat one. Besides, the increase of the loading velocity gives rise to the plastic deformation and the local stress rates. The dislocation density of the Ni50Co50/Ni sample is reduced if the loading speed is high enough.